The Sunshine Boys (1975) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error A vaudeville duo agree to reunite for a TV special, but it turns out that they can't stand each other. Director: From $2.00 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 31 titles created 13 Mar 2012 a list of 45 titles created 29 Mar 2014 a list of 30 titles created 09 Mar 2015 a list of 30 titles created 08 Aug 2015 a list of 22 titles created 11 months ago Title: The Sunshine Boys (1975) 7.2/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 1 Oscar. Another 5 wins & 6 nominations.

See more awards » Photos Three separate stories concerning relationship issues are presented, each largely taking place in suite 719 of the Plaza Hotel in New York City. In story one, suburban New Yorkers Sam and ... See full summary » Director: Arthur Hiller Misadventures of four groups of guests at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Director: Herbert Ross Three friends who are living on the dole decide to organize a bank robbery. Director: Martin Brest The Sunshine Boys (TV Movie 1996) Comedy | Drama Two aging comedians who acrimoniously dissolved their act eight years earlier must overcome their differences when they have the chance for a lucrative movie comeback. Director: John Erman Two friends try sharing an apartment, but their ideas of housekeeping and lifestyles are as different as night and day. Director: Gene Saks A crooked lawyer persuades his brother-in-law to feign a serious injury. Director: Billy Wilder When God appears to an assistant grocery manager as a good natured old man, the Almighty selects him as his messenger for the modern world.

Director: Carl Reiner Charley is a surgeon who's recently lost his wife; he embarks on a tragicomic romantic quest with one woman after another until he meets up with Ann, a singular woman, closer to his own age... See full summary » Director: Howard Zieff A suddenly unemployed ex-executive suffers a nervous breakdown. Director: Melvin Frank As a tabloid newspaper editor tries to prevent his top reporter from retiring, an escaped death row convict shows up at the office trying to convey his innocence. Director: Billy Wilder Avoiding to settle in a nursing home, Joseph Kotcher, a retired salesman, is obliged to leave his son's family. He embarks on a road trip during which he strikes up a friendship with a ... See full summary » Director: Jack Lemmon For the first time in history a woman is appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where she becomes a friendly rival to a liberal associate. Director: Ronald Neame Edit Storyline Lewis and Clark were famous comedians during the vaudeville era; off-stage, though, they couldn't stand each other and haven't spoken in over 20 years.

Ben, Willy Clark's nephew, is the producer of a variety show that wants to feature a reunion of the classic duo. How will Ben convince the crotchety old comedians to put aside their differences before the big show? Written by Mike Konczewski For the price of a movie, you'll feel like a million! Genres: 30 January 1976 (Denmark) See more » Also Known As: Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know? Trivia George Burns usually wore a hairpiece when he worked. The first scene we see of him in the film is one of few scenes he ever shot without it. See more » Goofs Walter Matthau takes a teabag from his cup and places it into the cup of George Burns . A moment later Burns reaches for the teabag to remove it but the string has changed direction and is hanging down from the other side of the cup. See more » Quotes Willy Clark : [talking about his ex-partner, Al Lewis] As an act, nobody could touch him. As a human being, nobody WANTED to touch him! (Germany) – See all my reviews This is an amazing accomplishment for George Burns.

He had not made a film for almost 40 years and had never really acted before, and yet he gave one of the most moving performances I have ever seen in a motion picture. He was the oldest performer to ever win an Academy Award for best supporting actor and I think it would behoove acting students to study his wonderful performance. Neil Simon is one of my favorite writers and I think this is his best work. Burns and Matthau make movie magic and it is a delight from start to finish to see these two old pros at work. 9 of 12 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Danny DeVito and Richard Griffiths bring us The Sunshine Boys - Telegraph Theatre Features Danny DeVito and Richard Griffiths bring us The Sunshine Boys Danny DeVito and Richard Griffiths are about to hit the West End stage in Neil Simon’s play, The Sunshine Boys, about an old-time comedy double-act who can’t stand each other. It’s very funny – but also deadly serious, they tell David Gritten .

As a pair they call to mind the title of another famous Neil Simon play – 'The Odd Couple’: Danny DeVito and Richard Griffiths in The Sunshine Boys By David Gritten 8:42AM BST 27 Apr 2012 It’s a hot afternoon, and as I walk along a corridor next to a rehearsal room at the Jerwood Space, close to London’s South Bank, two of its internal windows are wide open – so it’s easy to hear the voices of two older men with New York accents bickering loudly at each other. This is excellent news: it means rehearsals for the new West End production of Neil Simon’s 1972 comedy The Sunshine Boys are proceeding as planned. The play is about two elderly vaudevillians called Lewis and Clark, who had a successful act for 43 years, but grew to dislike each other and split up when Lewis decided to retire. They are invited to reunite and do their act one more time for a television network special about the history of comedy – but can they stand to be in the same room?

American Danny DeVito, best known as the grouchy, malevolent Louie in the long-running television comedy Taxi, plays Willie Clark, while Britain’s Richard Griffiths, equally famed for playing the teacher Hector in The History Boys and Uncle Monty in the film Withnail and I, is Al Lewis. As soon as their rehearsal break is called, the two actors bound happily into a refreshment room to talk. One’s first thought is that as a pair they call to mind the title of another famous Neil Simon play – The Odd Couple. Although neither is exactly svelte, it is nevertheless hard to imagine a more sharply contrasting pair. DeVito, 67, is barely 5ft tall, with a tanned bald pate; he gesticulates wildly as he talks, fast and loud in staccato sentences. Griffiths, 64, is a bigger man in every way, and boasts an impressive mane of silver hair. He considers his words carefully, but makes them count. Related Articles Sequel talks for film Twins 30 Mar 2012 “We’ve been rehearsing two weeks, and it’s been a lot of fun,” says DeVito, beaming. “It’s a great play.

It’s a comedy, but it’s not frivolous at all. The first time Richard and I spoke about it on the phone, one thing we went right to was: this is not simply a comedy. It’s got a lot more depth to it, character-wise. “The other thing is getting to a point where we know the dialogue perfectly. Neil Simon is so precise.” Griffiths leans forward: “It kills him if you approximate.” In Britain, The Sunshine Boys is less well known as a stage play than as a film. A big-screen adaptation in 1975 starred Walter Matthau as Clark and George Burns as the irascible Lewis. Burns, who was 79 at the time, won an Oscar as supporting actor – the movie kick-started a late-flowering film career for him. But Griffiths is insistent that the version of Sunshine Boys he and DeVito will play is Simon’s original. “It’s the one in the Library of Congress,” he says seriously. “We talked to the director, Thea Sharrock, about it,” DeVito chips in. “She feels very particular about this.

We have fun with this play, but she’s pretty much a stickler for the words.” Neither actor has seen a stage production of The Sunshine Boys, though Griffiths clearly recalls the Matthau-Burns film, about which he has reservations: “Having been in a play which was then made into a film [The History Boys], I saw they’d done the same thing with The Sunshine Boys. They tried to 'open it up’ for the camera. There’s this desperate desire to open it up because they want to use more locations. But to do that, you have to insert new stuff. So the movie set itself up for a fall. It was unsatisfactory. They took the play and fiddled with it. “The performances are great – that’s not the problem. But we’re going back to the play, because it’s what Mr Simon wrote.” And what he wrote was hugely funny, though it’s sour humour, coming from characters who are getting older and are somewhat worn down by life. At one point Lewis tells Clark: “You know what your trouble is, Willy? You always took the jokes too seriously. It was just jokes. We did comedy on the stage for 43 years.

I don’t think you enjoyed it once.” Clark replies: “If I was there to enjoy it, I would buy a ticket.” “The way Neil Simon constructs the whole thing,” DeVito says, “he gives you all the humour, the absurdities, the craziness you expect, but he’s also giving you the glue between these characters, where the glue came apart and what happened to the relationship. “It’s like a marriage. There are so many things that can pile up, but the marriage is there – there’s a reason you got together. Al Lewis wouldn’t have stuck around as long as he did if he didn’t know it was working. Lewis and Clark did 8,000 shows around the circuit and nailed it every time. The audience was like, falling over. So there was something there. But they were with each other a lot and things deteriorated. It was little things, and finally they couldn’t be around each other.” Simon is widely thought to have used two real-life old-time American vaudeville acts as his models for Lewis and Clark. Their longevity was inspired by an act called Smith and Dale, who started their two-man act in 1920 and stayed together for 50 years.

Though they notoriously bickered with each other, they remained firm friends. The other precursors, Gallagher and Shean, worked together on and off for only a dozen or so years, and, although they were successful, their relationship was a stormy one. This happens a lot with partnerships in the entertainment industry. Pop groups go the same way: they spend long years on the road together and often fall out. “It’s the way the Beatles came apart,” Griffiths observes. “But everyone out there, the audience, just wanted them to be together, do the music and be happy.” And never to change, of course. “That’s right,” he says. “But change is inevitable. And I think this whole play is to do with the nature of change, because these two characters are confronted by choice at this point, at the fag-end of their careers.” But they agree that Simon’s play is partly about the ageing process and, as Griffiths says, “about the intractability of important relationships. It’s so complicated, this thing. Yet these two guys use very simple language. There’s nothing philosophical, tricksy, clever or smart-arse about them whatsoever. They’re comics, they’re stand-up guys.

That’s what they do.” DeVito and Griffiths will not be around long enough to tire of each other’s company: The Sunshine Boys is scheduled for a limited three-month run. But the two men, as different as chalk and cheese, seem to delight in each other and laugh a lot. They’ll be playing at the Savoy Theatre. “A gorgeous place,” says DeVito, before he starts lapsing into the querulous tones of Lewis and Clark: “But if I could, I’d like to appeal to the Mayor of London, or maybe the Prime Minister, and say: 'Is there a way to put a couple of lifts in there?’ I mean, would it have killed them to put an escalator in for two old guys like us? We gotta go up 50 steps to get to the stage. We got it in our contracts – one day he carries me up, the next day I carry him.” Of the two, DeVito, who grew up in New Jersey and comes from an Italian-American family, might seem to have the inside track on Lewis and Clark: his “Noo Joisey” accent fits right in for the rhythms of the dialogue Simon wrote for the two vaudevillians.

“But I’m so impressed with Richard’s accent,” he says. “It’s amazing.” Addressing Griffiths, he says: “Sometimes you say things that throw me right off. I hear my relatives sitting around a table talking.” He lapses into “Joisey”: “You doin’ a good job, Mr Griffiths, with that accent!” Griffiths, clearly touched by the compliment, actually blushes. “Well,” I tell DeVito, “he’s a national treasure, you know.” Not missing a beat, DeVito says: “Now he’s my treasure, too.” In fact, Griffiths admits he has not attempted an American accent since 1979, when he appeared in Trevor Nunn’s production of Kaufman and Hart’s Once in a Lifetime at the RSC. (He was nominated for an Olivier award on that occasion.) Still, it’s Griffiths who has a clear advantage in stage experience. While DeVito did a lot of theatre in New York in his younger days (off-Broadway he played Martini in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the film that gave him a major career break) he has essentially confined himself to movies and television since the Seventies.

“It’s been a while,” he admits. “But on Taxi, I played Louie for five years. And we’d do that show every Friday night in front of an audience of 300 people. Each time, we’d only had the script from Monday. We never did a straight run-through – one of us would screw up a line – but it wasn’t so different.” Both men insist that Al Lewis and Willie Clark are not mean-minded men, despite the acidity of their humour. “There’s a lot more love in our play than animosity,” DeVito muses. “You hear stories about big stars who berate assistants or do cruel things to a costume designer on set. I don’t think there’s cruelty in this.” “They’re not bullies, are they?” Griffiths murmurs. “No, they’re really sweet,” DeVito continues. “But they’re at that time in their life, in their seventies. You spend 43 years doing one thing, and then suddenly you’re either out to pasture or you’re unhappy about not working.

“We embody both of those results of life.” He assumes a voice of doom: “The ticking clock.” Then he cackles: “But it’s funny!” The Sunshine Boys opens at the Savoy Theatre, London, on April 27; 020 7492 9930 Jack Klugman - Biography - IMDb Jack Klugman Biography Showing all 45 items Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (2) | Trivia (28) | Personal Quotes (9) | Salary (1) Overview (4) 5' 9" (1.75 m) Mini Bio (1) As a film character actor, Klugman was the epitome of the everyman. He was one of the pioneers of television acting in the 1950s, and is best remembered for his 1970s TV work as Oscar Madison on The Odd Couple (1970) and as the medical examiner on Quincy M.E. (1976).

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Ray Hamel Spouse (2) (1953 - 15 September 2007) (her death) (2 children) Trivia (28) Served on the board of directors of New York's National Actor's Theatre. Lived with Barbara Neugass from 1978 to 1992. 1 December 1999: A Los Angeles jury rejected an $881,000 palimony claim by her. She claims Jack promised her lifetime support. Their relationship ended in 1992. Father of sons Adam Klugman and David Klugman . Stepfather of Leslie Klein . Attended Carnegie-Mellon University. He was once part owner of a racehorse named "Jaklin Klugman". He reunited with Tony Randall on Broadway in 1998 for Neil Simon 's "The Sunshine Boys". Was nominated for Broadway's 1960 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Musical) for "Gypsy". Brother of Deborah Klugman and Maurice Klugman .

Appears in the original film, 12 Angry Men (1957), which was remade with Jack Lemmon . Klugman later appeared in the television series, The Odd Couple (1970), which was based on the film The Odd Couple (1968) in which Lemmon co-starred as Felix Unger. In April 2012 he performed "12 Angry Men" at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, NJ, in another role. As a film character actor, Klugman was the epitome of the everyman. He was one of the pioneers of television acting in the 1950s and is best remembered for his 1970s television work as Oscar Madison on The Odd Couple (1970) and as the medical examiner on Quincy M.E. (1976). Was believed to have been involved in a long and bitter feud with actor Norman Fell that lasted over 40 years. However, it was later revealed by Klugman that he and Fell got along fine and the feud was nothing more than a friendly rivalry. Although he separated from Brett Somers in 1974, neither ever filed for divorce.

Wed girlfriend Peggy Crosby at The Little Brown Church in Studio City, California (2 February 2008). The last surviving juror from the cast of the original 12 Angry Men (1957), Juror number five. Diagnosed with throat cancer in 1974 culminated with vocal surgery in 1989, which left Klugman's voice harsh and gravelly. Both his cancer and scratchy voice were written into several of his later film and television roles, including The Odd Couple: Together Again (1993), Dear God (1996), and Diagnosis Murder (1993). He and Tony Randall performed together in Appointment with Adventure: The Pirate's House (1955), from the "Golden Age of television", 15 years before they did the classic sitcom, The Odd Couple (1970). Competed in Celebrity Challenge of the Sexes (1977) in billiards. He won the match but lost by default because he forgot to call the final shot as per the rules. Was roasted on the The Best of the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts (1998). Passed away on same day as actor Charles Durning .

He enjoyed betting on the horses from the tender age of 15. His own thoroughbred, "Jacklin Klugman", finished third in the 1980 Kentucky Derby. Ended up making more money from his 10% ownership in The Odd Couple (1970) than from the $7000 per episode he received during the show's final season. Was no stranger to hard times from birth: as a child he had been made to work as a street peddler, and during especially lean stints in his early acting career he would sell his blood for $5 a pint. He considered Henry Fonda to be the greatest actor he ever worked with. Currently appearing in James Sweet 's "The Value of Names", at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, NJ. [November 2006] Performing one-man show "An Evening with Jack Klugman" at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank, California. Sept. 12 - Oct. 19 2003 [September 2003] His favorite episode of The Odd Couple (1970) was The Odd Couple: Password (1972).

Personal Quotes (9) [on attending rival and decades-old enemy Norman Fell 's funeral]: Best funeral I've ever been to. I've never laughed so hard in years. I had the time of my life. NOTE: As it turned out, their "feud" was just a friendly rivalry that got blown out of proportion, and they just mischievously encouraged the perception of a feud. In reality, they were friends. [on people comparing him to "Oscar Madison" from The Odd Couple (1970)] People think I'm like Oscar. When they find out I'm not, they seem disappointed. [on his show Quincy M.E. (1976)]: We were the first CSI [ CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000)]. All these other shows just took what we did and made it bloodier and sexier. Our show was actually about something, we had a message and a moral. You can't compare gold to tin foil. I was a one-man "CSI". [on his great friend Tony Randall ] The best friend a man could ever have. I loved him dearly. He was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word.

I will miss him for the rest of my days. [on former roommate Charles Bronson ] You remembered him. He had an amazing presence. [on working with Tony Randall ] There's nobody better to improvise with than Tony. A script might say,"Oscar teaches Felix football". There would be four blank pages. He would provoke me into reacting to what he did. Mine was the easy part. [on the hardships of his life] Poverty can teach lessons that privilege cannot. [on smoking] I saw John Garfield smoke. He was my idol, so I smoked. I even smoked like him . . . The only really stupid thing I ever did in my life was to start smoking. [on what made Quincy M.E. (1976) a hit] Quincy was a muckraker, like Upton Sinclair , who wrote about injustices. He was my ideal as a youngster, my author, my hero. Everybody said, "Quincy' will never be a hit.". I said, "You guys are wrong. He's two heroes in one, a cop and a doctor". A coroner has power. He can tell the police commissioner to investigate a murder.

I saw the opportunity to do what I'd gotten into the theater to do--give a message. They were going to do cops and robbers with "Quincy". I said, "You promised me I could do causes". They said, "Nobody wants to see that" I said, "Look at the success of 60 Minutes (1968). They want to see it if you present it as entertainment". Salary (1) Neil Simon Biography - life, family, childhood, children, parents, story, wife, mother, young Neil Simon Biography New York, New York American playwright and writer Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Neil Simon is one of America's most productive and popular dramatists. His plays expose human weaknesses and make people laugh at themselves. Early years Marvin Neil Simon was born in the Bronx, in New York, on the Fourth of July in 1927. His father Irving, a garment salesman, disappeared from time to time, leaving his wife, Mamie, to support their two sons by working at a department store and by relying on family and friends. After his parents divorced, Simon lived with relatives in Forest Hills, New York.

Simon received the nickname "Doc" as a child because he was always pretending to be a doctor, listening to people's heartbeats with a toy stethoscope (an instrument used to listen to sounds inside the body). He also loved comedy films and was often thrown out of movie theaters for laughing too loudly. Simon and his older brother Danny were very close. During their teens, they wrote and sold material to standup comedians and radio shows. It was his brother who encouraged him to pursue writing while in the United States Army Air Force Reserve program. Simon also attended college at this time. His childhood love of comedy stuck, and his writing was inspired by the work of his favorite comics—Robert Benchley (1889–1945) and Ring Lardner (1885–1933). Writing for a living After being discharged (let out) from the army, Simon got a job in Warner Brothers' mailroom—thanks to his brother, who worked in the publicity department.

They began working together again, and from 1947 to 1956 they wrote comedy for television shows starring Jackie Gleason (1916–1987) and Phil Silvers (1911–1985). Simon continued writing comedy after his brother quit to become a television director, and his work appeared on some of television's top shows. The pleasure was fading, however, so he began writing plays in 1960. Simon's first play, Come Blow Your Horn, was a modest hit. It was followed shortly Neil Simon. AP/Wide World Photos . thereafter with Barefoot in the Park, which ran on Broadway for four years. His third play, The Odd Couple, introduced two famous characters, Felix and Oscar, two men with failing marriages who move in together to save money and find that they have the same problems living with each other as they did with their wives. Simon's storylines usually presented conflicts between two people and were filled with funny one-liners. Simon admitted that he often used personal experiences or those of his friends for material.

Come Blow Your Horn was about two brothers who moved away from home and shared an apartment (just as Simon and his brother had); Barefoot in the Park was the story of newlyweds adjusting to married life (similar to his own marriage); and of The Odd Couple Simon once commented, "[The story] happened to two guys I know—I couldn't write a play about Welsh miners." The Odd Couple had a two-year run on Broadway, won Simon his first Tony Award (an award given every year for achievement in the theater), and was adapted to television and film several times. New approach to drama In the 1970s Simon made an effort to add depth to his work by treating serious issues with comic touches. He presented works such as The Last of the Red Hot Lovers, the story of a married man in a mid-life crisis who has a series of affairs; The Gingerbread Lady, in which a one-time singer, who is now an alcoholic, struggles to make a comeback; and The Prisoner of Second Avenue, which witnesses the nervous breakdown of a recently fired business executive. Simon continued to create characters who struggled to handle their feelings in difficult situations and who released tension with humor.

He began to share more of himself and his life, including boyhood dreams of escaping from his family problems and the difficulty of coping with his wife's terminal illness. During this period he wrote The Sunshine Boys, The Good Doctor, California Suite, and Chapter Two, whose main character, a widower, feels guilty over falling in love and remarrying, much as Simon had. He also wrote several screenplays, including The Goodbye Girl, which was nominated (put forward for consideration) for an Academy Award in 1977. Even more personal works Simon took his mixing of honesty and humor to new levels in the 1980s. Brighton Beach Memoirs, the first in a trilogy (series of three works) of semiautobiographical (some-what based on his own life) plays, tells the story of a middle-class Jewish American teenager growing up in a troubled family. Biloxi Blues deals with the boy's coming of age and facing of anti-Semitism (hatred of Jewish people) while in the army. Finally, Broadway Bound takes audiences into the boy's young adulthood, as he struggles to establish his career and sees the problems in his parents' relationship more clearly.

Simon claimed that writing the play helped him address the problems he had with his own mother. When Simon's third marriage broke up, he wrote Jake's Women, in which he introduces "ghosts"—good and bad experiences of two marriages and their effect on the third. He began the 1990s with Lost in Yonkers, a painfully funny story about the effect an abusive mother has on her grown children. The play was a success, and in 1991 it earned the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Later years Simon's next work, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, is a behind-the-scenes look at writing comedy by committee, as a group of men shout one-liners, each trying to top the other. Critics found it funny but talked about the lack of plot and depth of the characters. Simon received Kennedy Center honors in 1995 from President Bill Clinton (1946–) for his contribution to the arts and to popular culture in the twentieth century. In 1996 Simon wrote a book entitled Rewrites, a look back at his early career.

The book received mixed reviews; People Weekly commented that it "doesn't live up to the creativity it documents." In 1997 Simon introduced his first major black character in Proposals. In an interview with David Stearns for USA Today he said, "It is one of the most loving plays I've ever written. There's also a lot of anger. Because love is the main theme in the play, I was trying to cover all the aspects [elements] of it—those who get it and those who don't." In 1999 Simon was honored by ringing the bell to open trading at the New York Stock Exchange as part of the Exchange's Bridging the Millennium program, which honored leaders of the twentieth century whose achievements continue to enrich humanity. In 2001, just about the same time his new play 45 Seconds from Broadway was opening, Simon was presented with the first Sarah Applebaum Nederlander Award for Excellence in Theatre at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. As President Clinton remarked of Simon when presenting him with the Kennedy Center honors, "He challenges us and himself never to take ourselves too seriously. Thank you for the wit and the wisdom." For More Information Neil Simon | Playscripts, Inc.

Playscripts, Inc. Playwright & Screenwriter Biography Neil Simon has been represented on Broadway by Come Blow Your Horn; Little Me; Barefoot in the Park; The Odd Couple; Sweet Charity; The Star-Spangled Girl; Plaza Suite; Promises, Promises; Last of the Red Hot Lovers; The Gingerbread Lady; The Prisoner of Second Avenue; The Sunshine Boys; The Good Doctor; God’s Favorite; California Suite; Chapter Two; They’re Playing Our Song; I Ought to Be in Pictures; Fools; Brighton Beach Memoirs; Biloxi Blues (1985 Tony Award); the female version of The Odd Couple; Broadway Bound; Rumors; Lost in Yonkers (1991 Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award); Jake’s Women; The Goodbye Girl; Laughter on the 23rd Floor; Proposals; The Dinner Party; and 45 Seconds From Broadway. Off-Broadway: London Suite, Hotel Suite and Rose’s Dilemma.

Films include Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, The Out-of-Towners, Plaza Suite, The Heartbreak Kid, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Murder by Death, The Sunshine Boys, The Goodbye Girl, The Cheap Detective, California Suite, Chapter Two, Seems Like Old Times, Only When I Laugh, I Ought to Be in Pictures, Max Dugan Returns, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and Lost in Yonkers. Jack Klugman of TV's 'Odd Couple' dies at 90 Jack Klugman of TV's 'Odd Couple' dies at 90 Jack Klugman's son Adam says the veteran actor has died in Los Angeles Post to Facebook Jack Klugman of TV's 'Odd Couple' dies at 90 Jack Klugman's son Adam says the veteran actor has died in Los Angeles Check out this story on USATODAY.com: CancelSend A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

246 To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs Jack Klugman of TV's 'Odd Couple' dies at 90 Staff and wire reports Published 6:13 p.m. ET Dec. 24, 2012 | Updated 11:12 a.m. ET Dec. 25, 2012 CLOSE x Share ack Klugman, the prolific, craggy-faced character actor and regular guy who was loved by millions as the messy one in TV's 'The Odd Couple' and the crime-fighting coroner in 'Quincy, M.E.,' died Monday, a son said. He was 90. (Dec. 24) AP The stage and screen actor remained popular for decades and was famous for his gruff but down-to-earth characters.

Jack Klugman in a scene from the motion picture "When Do We Eat?" (Photo: think Film) Klugman was loved by millions as the messy one in TV's 'The Odd Couple' The veteran actor also was known as the gruff but idealistic medical examiner in 'Quincy' He lost his voice to throat cancer in 1980s and trained himself to speak again 14223 CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN 246 COMMENTEMAILMORE LOS ANGELES — Jack Klugman, the prolific, craggy-faced character actor and regular guy who was loved by millions as the messy one in TV's The Odd Couple and the crime-fighting coroner in Quincy, M.E., died on Christmas Eve, his son said. He was 90. Klugman, who lost his voice to throat cancer in the 1980s and trained himself to speak again, died with his wife at his side. "He had a great life and he enjoyed every moment of it and he would encourage others to do the same," son Adam Klugman said. Jack Klugman apparently died suddenly, and family members were not sure of the exact cause.

As word of Klugman's death spread, comedians tweeted their appreciation. "You made my whole family laugh together," Jon Favreau wrote. Whoopi Goldberg hailed him as a "cool guy, wonderful actor," and William Shatner remembered Klugman as "an extraordinary and talented man." "I lost my mentor, second father and my dear friend," John Stamos said. Ricky Gervais, tweeting for a generation of fans, cited Klugman's numerous credits and marveled "... and he looked just like my dad." Never anyone's idea of a matinee idol, Klugman remained a popular star for decades simply by playing a gruff but down-to-earth guy, his tie stained and a little loose, a cigar in hand during the days when smoking was permitted. His was an ideal persona for The Odd Couple, which ran from 1970 to 1975 and was based on Neil Simon's play about mismatched roommates, divorced New Yorkers who end up living together.

The show teamed Klugman, the sloppy sports writer Oscar Madison, and Tony Randall, the fussy photographer Felix Unger, in the roles played by Walter Matthau and Art Carney on Broadway and Mattthau and Jack Lemmon in the 1968 film. Klugman would go on to win two Emmy Awards for his portrayal. Klugman had already had a taste of the show when he replaced Matthau on Broadway, and he learned to roll with the quick-thinking Randall. "There's nobody better to improvise with than Tony," Klugman said. "A script might say, 'Oscar teaches Felix football.' There would be four blank pages. He would provoke me into reacting to what he did. Mine was the easy part." They were the best of friends in real life. When Randall died in 2004 at age 84, Klugman told CNN: "A world without Tony Randall is a world that I cannot recognize." In Quincy, M.E., which ran from 1976 to 1983, Klugman played an idealistic, tough-minded medical examiner who tussled with his boss by uncovering evidence of murder in cases where others saw natural causes.

"Everybody said, 'Quincy will never be a hit.' I said, 'You guys are wrong. He's two heroes in one, a cop and a doctor,' " he said in a 1987 Associated Press interview. But it was his partnership with Randall that would prove to be his defining role. When Klugman lost a vocal cord to cancer in 1989, it was Randall who insisted Klugman could bounce back. "My career was over," Klugman told USA TODAY in 1997, when he reunited with Randall on Broadway for Simon's The Sunshine Boys. "I couldn't even swallow: I had to lay on my side. I lived alone, could barely whisper. I cut off everybody." But when the two old friends teamed up for an Odd Couple benefit performance, "everybody was crying," Klugman recalled, performing a waterfall of tears with his fingers. "The cast, the audience, these people who had paid $1,000 a seat." Jacob Joachim "Jack" Klugman was born in 1922 in Philadelphia. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants. His mother, Rose, was a hatmaker and his father, Max, was a house painter.

Klugman graduated in 1948 from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). He began his acting career after serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. His TV career included more than 400 appearances on midcentury live dramas, including Studio One, Philco Playhouse, Kraft Television Theatre and U.S. Steel Hour. He won an Emmy for his work on the TV courtroom drama The Defenders, which aired on CBS from 1961 to 1965, and appeared on four episodes of The Twilight Zone. He also worked with Ethel Merman on Broadway in the original stage production of Gypsy, which opened in 1959. It was loosely based on the memoirs of the famous striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee. Merman starred as Rose, Lee's mother, and Klugman as her suitor Herbie, a role that earned him a Tony nomination. Highlights of his film career include his role as Juror #5 in 1957's 12 Angry Men. He was the last surviving actor of the 12 who portrayed the jurors, including Lee J. Cobb and Henry Fonda.

He also starred with Lemmon and Lee Remick in Blake Edwards' 1962 film Days of Wine and Roses and 1969's Goodbye, Columbus with Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw. In 2005, Klugman self-published Tony and Me: A Story of Friendship, a book about his longtime pal Randall, who died in 2004. Klugman gave the eulogy at Randall's memorial service. In March 2012, Klugman canceled plans to appear in a stage production of 12 Angry Men at the George Street Playhouse in New Jersey, citing poor health. Klugman's wife, actress/comedian Brett Somers, played his ex-wife, Blanche, in the Odd Couple series. The couple, who married in 1953 and had two sons, Adam and David, had been estranged for years at the time of her death in 2007. In February 2008, at age 85, Klugman married longtime girlfriend Peggy Crosby.

The Sunshine Boys – review | Stage | The Guardian The Sunshine Boys – review 4 / 5 stars Savoy, London The Sunshine Boys' Willie Clark (played by Danny Devito) and Al Lewis (played by Richard Griffiths). Photograph: Tristram Kenton Thursday 17 May 2012 19.58 EDT First published on Thursday 17 May 2012 19.58 EDT Share on Messenger Close America's Danny DeVito and Britain's Richard Griffiths join forces in this joyous revival of Neil Simon's 1972 comedy about a pair of superannuated vaudevillians. But what makes the play profoundly touching as well as funny is Simon's understanding of the obduracy, childishness and professional neglect that are often inseparable from old age. The play has echoes of Simon's greatest hit, The Odd Couple. This play is also about two men in a quasi-marital relationship. For 43 years Willie Clark and Al Lewis were a headline double-act but, after a decade in non-speaking retirement, they are to be reunited for a CBS comedy special.

But Willie is a cantankerous old cuss who loathes his ex-partner because of his decision to quit the business. Al, meanwhile, is a gentler soul who lives with his daughterin New Jersey and wonders why he should go through an old routine with the waspishly vindictive Willie. Because of his early training in Sid Caesar TV comedy, Simon is often thought of as a gag writer, but what makes him so funny is that his jokes spring from character. At one point Willie's agent-nephew, who pays a weekly visit to his truculent uncle in his hotel room, complains: "I always get chest pains on Wednesdays." Willie's dry response of "Then come on Tuesdays" captures the veteran comic's determination to have the last word. But, while Simon gets an extraordinary number of laughs out of the confrontation of the bickering comics, he also makes it clear old age is no joke. Willie and Al may be vaudeville characters; but, in their arguments and their mix of dependence and open hostility, they resemble many old couples fighting off the fear of mortality.

Thea Sharrock's production treats the play as a character study rather than a mechanical gag-fest and yields two glowing performances. DeVito's Willie is an extraordinary mix of the hard-nosed old pro, who explains why words with a "k" are funny, and the malevolent loner. For such a small man, DeVito exudes a disproportionate rage, but he makes you feel Willie's volcanic anger stems from his yearning to work. Griffiths, as his former partner, is mellower but displays a silvery determination when it comes to the precise placement of a chair and has the look of a wounded man. By the end you begin to understand why Willie says of Al, "As an actor no-one could touch him, as a human being no-one wanted to touch him." Adam Levy as Willie's peace-making nephew is a desperate man caught between an irresistible force and an immoveable object. The end result is a richly resonant comedy that reminds us that, while Simon may be pure, he is rarely simple. From Taxi to Twins, Danny DeVito is one of Hollywood's most recognisable figures.

He talks about family, hairdressing and arguing over politics with Schwarzenegger Published: 27 Feb 2013 The Sunshine Boys | Guthrie Theater The Sunshine Boys by Neil Simon directed by Gary Gisselman One of the most highly anticipated events of the season will be the union of Guthrie dream team Raye Birk (Faith Healer, Third) and Peter Michael Goetz (1776, The Government Inspector), playing cantankerous vaudeville comedians in Neil Simon's popular comedy The Sunshine Boys, directed by Gary Gisselman (Lost in Yonkers, A Christmas Carol). Despite their comedic chemistry onstage, the one-time famous duo "Lewis and Clark" can't stand each other offstage. The shenanigans that ensue when these seasoned stage partners are coerced to reunite for a CBS television comedy special will likely make this ticket one of the hottest – and most hilarious – in town. Run time: 2 hours 30 minutes including intermission Cast

Question: Who wrote the plays The Sunshine Boys and The Odd Couple?
Answer: NEIL SIMON